Meet the Cast: "Sweeney Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

To bring to life London’s seedy underbelly in Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the 11-member cast worked with dialect coaches, a choreographer and others, in addition to rehearsing the songs and the dialogue. They fell in love with director Kent Nicholson’s vision for the show, exploring both its humor and its well-known macabre elements. Read on as the cast dishes on what they love about Sweeney—and the kind of pies they like to eat (truly, not the kind baked by Mrs. Lovett!).

David St. Louis​P​ortrays Sweeney Todd.My SCR debut.My other credits include Broadway productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jesus Christ Superstar and Rent, along with regional productions of Porgy and Bess, Intimate Apparel, Candide, and Bessie’s Blues, “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Blacklist.”The best thing about Sweeney Todd: The fact that, through the years, the music and themes refuse to get stale, irrelevant or the slightest bit uninteresting.My favorite kind of pie: Bourbon Apple.

Jamey Hood​Portrays Mrs. Lovett.My SCR credits include Theatre for Young Audiences shows including Imagine, Jane of the Jungle and Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey BusinessMy other credits include touring productions of Hello, Dolly! and My Fair Lady, as well as the New York production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical.The best thing about Sweeney Todd: I’m blown away by the humor packed into such a dark story filled with murder, corruption and cannibalism. Who knew eating people could be so funny?!My favorite kind of pie: Pumpkin, with homemade whipped cream. Yum!

Devin Archer​Portrays Anthony.My SCR debut.My other credits include national tours of Bright Star and Mamma Mia!, as well as regional productions of Les Misérables, South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof and Twelfth Night.The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The theme of revenge as it has been
the focus of playwrights
for millennia. The terrific thing about Sweeney Todd is how it finds a way to weave comedy into its depiction of vengeance through ridiculous and delicious (pun intended!) violence. By offering a strong juxtaposition of young and naive versus experienced and jaded, Sweeney encourages us to remember the wondrous child inside every one of us. It reminds us to always consider forgiveness and kindness as a tool to break the chains holding us to our past. Sounds like Sondheim, huh?My favorite kind of pie: Shepherd’s Pie.

Erica Hanrahan-Ball​Portrays the Beggar Woman.My SCR debut.My other credits include Man of La Mancha, Mamma Mia!, Cabaret, A Little Night Music, The Missing Pages of Lewis Carroll and Pal Joey and “The Office” (the Sweeney Todd episode).The best thing about Sweeney Todd:Everything—the amazing storytelling, the incredibly intricate lyrics and music ... all of it.My favorite kind of pie: Banana Cream.

Juliana Hansen​Portrays Johanna.My SCR debut.My other credits include the national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie, along with Mary Poppins, The Fantasticks, Les Misérables, The Wizard of Oz and West Side Story. I’m the new voice of Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins: Legacy Collection) and Cinderella (Cinderella: The Lost Chords).The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The score blows me away! It’s the most complex music I’ve ever worked on and the more we do it, the more intricacies and cleverness reveal themselves.My favorite kind of pie: Peach.

Conlan Ledwith
​Portrays Tobias Ragg.My SCR debut.My other credits include productions at San Diego Repertory Theatre, Marriott Theatre (Lincolnshire), Antaeus Theatre Company, First Stage, Northern Sky Theatre and Théatre du Gymase (Paris).The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The musical’s humor. I’ve been a big fan of Sweeney Todd since I was very young and know almost every lyric, having grown up on the cast recording. That being said, every day in rehearsal I’m finding new jokes and puns that seemingly came out of nowhere—it’s absolutely thrilling. My favorite kind of pie: Strawberry-Rhubarb.

​Robert Mammana​​Portrays Judge Turpin.My previous SCR credit is Cloudlands.My other credits include Les Misérables, The Sound of Music, Show Boat, The Twentieth-Century Way, Man of La Mancha,Guys and Dolls, “NCIS,” “Elementary” and “The Good Wife.”The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The thing I find the most amazing is the language, specifically the lyrics. They are murderously difficult and insanely fun!My favorite kind of pie: Cherry—and now I’m hungry.

​Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper​Portrays Beadle Bamford.My previous SCR credits include Once, Shakespeare in Love, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Borrowers.My other credits include Rothschild & Sons, Lonesome Traveler, Julius Caesar (all off-Broadway), Three Days of Rain, Side by Side by Sondheim, Words By: Ira Gershwin, “Superstore” and “Fuller House.”The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The sheer chutzpah of combining horror/pastiche with some of the most creative symphonic work Sondheim ever did. He learned his lessons very well from his composer colleagues Bernstein and Styne, but managed to use his own genius ability to write music in the cadence of the spoken word to create a genre-busting gothic masterpiece.My favorite kind of pie: I’ve had some sublime pies in my life, but a good Irish meat pie is ... just sinfully good.

​Roland Rusinek​Portrays Adolfo Pirelli.My SCR debut.My other credits include The Phantom of the Opera (Broadway), A Christmas Carol, Sweeney Todd, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Kiss Me Kate, Man of La Mancha, Limelight, Guys and Dolls, Candide, Lend Me a Tenor and The Producers.The best thing about Sweeney Todd:This will be my eighth production of the show and my first as Pirelli. I have done it in many different incarnations, with different cuts, stagings and concepts and what blows me away about this show every time is that, since it is extremely well written, the show always works! Just say the words on the page, sing the notes Mr. Sondheim wrote, tell the story and it will always work. Always. That’s why it’s a masterpiece. That blows me away.My favorite kind of pie: Aunt Nina’s piccadillo empanadas. Let me explain—my mother is Cuban, and I was blessed with family members who cook, and cook well, so my Aunt Nina would make empanadas—which are basically the same kind of meat pie Mrs. Lovett serves, only not human flesh, but the Latin version—that were to die for!

​Brent Schindele​Portrays Jonas Fogg.My SCR debut.My other credits include In a Booth at Chasen’s, The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), The 39 Steps, Sunday in the Park with George, End of the Rainbow and The Music Man.The best thing about Sweeney Todd:I’ve worked on a
lot of shows by Stephen Sondheim and “blown away” has always been my response to the intricacy, the difficulty and the sophistication of his music. To me, what’s special about Sweeney Todd is that there’s such a clear reason supporting all the dissonance and apparent chaos of the score: he’s creating a thriller, trying to give you goosebumps and tingles up your spine. The story is about people whose grip on sanity is a bit tenuous, people with deliciously dark purposes in dark places, and the music suits all that - indeed, helps create all that. Then when moments of pure lyricism and musical beauty break in, they are blessedly welcome, like sunshine through the clouds, or a bird’s song amid the industrial noise of 19th-century London.My favorite kind of pie: Boysenberry. I’m a Southern California boy!

​Katy Tang​​Portrays Ensemble characters.My SCR debut.My other credits include Candide, A Little Night Music, West Side Story, Spring Awakening, The Mikado, Brigadoon, Le Nozze di Figaro and Threepenny Opera.The best thing about Sweeney Todd:The sheer brilliance and genius of this musical! I’m blown away by the layers and the way in which they all fit together. I think there are plenty of moments when, as a stand-alone piece of the puzzle, one can feel like they’re not even part of the same picture. Yet, when you put it all together, it makes perfect sense. Seemingly contradicting madness becomes harmonious and those moments are exciting, whether you’re creating it or experiencing it. There’s such an unexpected quality about the whole darn masterpiece!My favorite kind of pie: Banana Cream.